The past generation has been marked by a rapid expansion of industries involved in the marketing and distribution of virtually all products over the Internet or World Wide Web (Web)(terms are used interchangeably herein) or like networks. With the expanded accessibility of hundreds of thousands of programmers, information distributors and users of such programs via the expanded network client bases, an obvious need became apparent: the need for software product distribution channels that would compensate the developers and distributors of the software products without hampering the ability of the software product distributes, i.e. purchasers using the software products to their fullest advantage.
Conventionally, software licensing is the means through which software developers and vendors control the use and cost of their software products. Accordingly, for software product developers to maintain reasonable profit margins, it is essential for these developers who license the use of the software products to control the use and distribution of such licensed software products. Software developers and vendors have tried to forcibly control the licensed use of the software products with features such as nonreusable recording media and machine lock keys. These techniques harassed and offended consumers using the product and had become unexpected impediments to the software usage that would often crop up even during authorized and proper use of the software products.